An Aug. 13-14 trial date has been set for a former Vernon Health and Rehabilitation employee who is facing theft charges for allegedly taking $8,000 from the facility.

The employee, Shannon Gidley, 40, Wabash, entered a not guilty plea in Wabash Circuit Court to the charge of theft, a Level 6 felony. Gidley was fired from the facility on Jan. 8 and was formally charged on March 29.

According to the probable cause affidavit filed by Wabash Police Detective John Krhin:

Vernon Manor Executive Director Robin Shull advised police that she and Gidley were the only two employees to had the combination and access to the safe.

Shull said that Gidley allegedly had receipts totaling $1,403.60 taken from the residents’ accounts, and that the residents had not received the money. She also told police that Gidley was in charge of the facility’s petty cash fund, and that $400 was allegedly missing from it, as well as $250 from a second petty cash fund.

Metro North Elementary’s Little Norse program has achieved a Level 3 Paths to Quality rating, it was revealed at the Tuesday, April 9, MSD of Wabash County school board meeting.

District officials explained that Paths to Quality is Indiana’s rating scale for early education experiences and early child care centers.

Parents are able to use this rating system to make informed decisions regarding their children’s education and early childhood experiences.

“Metro North Elementary School’s Little Norse Preschool is the first elementary preschool in Wabash County to earn this distinction,”Principal Janette Moore said. “Our goal is to achieve a Level 4 rating, national accreditation. A rating of Level 3 recognizes our knowledge and skills for planning appropriate activities and opportunities that lead children toward school readiness, and the significant investment in our professional development of our staff, as well as our family and community involvement at Metro North and within our Little Norse programming.”

The recently mailed Wabash County property tax bills have an error on them, Wabash County Treasurer LuAnn Layman told The Paper of Wabash County on Friday.

“We’ve been informed from the (Indianapolis-based) printing company that due to a programming error that the spring receipt mirrors the fall receipt above it,” she said. “We are aware of this discrepancy and are sorry for this inconvenience. The fall payment coupon and receipt are correct.”

The spring payment is generally higher than the fall payment, she said, because such things as the solid waste fee, delinquencies and penalties interest. Those figures were included on one part of the bill, but omitted on another.

Gov. Eric J. Holcomb Thursday, April 11, announced Benjamin D. Vanderpool as his appointment to the Wabash County Superior Court. He will succeed Judge Amy Conner Cornell who passed away Feb. 19.

Vanderpool, a Wabash native, has been in private practice in Wabash and Warsaw since graduating law school. He earned his Bachelor of Science from Purdue University and his law degree from Thomas M. Cooley Law School.

“This came about very quickly after Judge Cornell passed away,” Vanderpool said. “They opened up applications March 4, I believe.

“It has all happened very, very quickly. Everything is going to change, there is no doubt about that.”

The Wireless Zone, an authorized Verizon retailer, has opened in Wabash.

The business is the third franchise owned by Brian and Rachel McMeeking.

“Rachel, she’s from Wabash,” McMeeking said. “We opened about 10 years ago. We had plans to grow, but slowly.”

The couple first opened a site in Columbia City, followed two years later by one in Fort Wayne.

“We had made mention to Verizon that if this area ever came open, we would like to locate here,” McMeeking continued. “It took a long time, because they were looking at actually buying the rights to open here.

“A couple of months back we were given the opportunity, so we thought it would be the best thing to do for our company.”

The store opened March 8, according to Mrs. McMeeking. It is located at 1465 N. Cass St, in the Wabash Crossing.

The store is a premium retailer of Verizon and a franchisee of Wireless Zone.

Applications are now being accepted by the Wabash Cannonball Chili for Charity Chili Cook-off from non-profit agencies interested in receiving funds from the 17th annual cook-off in October.

Application forms are available on the committee’s webpage, chiliforcharity.com, and are due back by May 15. They are being accepted online only, committee chair Todd Titus said.

“We’ve had as many as 40 (applicants),” he said of groups seeking funding. “I think last year we’ve had 25 or 30.”
Last year the committee donated a combined $41,000 to 15 local agencies. In its 16 years, it has donated more than $550,000 to local agencies.

Students at the Access Learning Academy are getting lessons to help prepare them for the future, thanks in part to the Purdue Cooperative Extension Office in Wabash County.

Mindy Mays, Extension Educator – Health & Human Services, visits the academy on Wednesdays to discuss with the students a variety of life skills including such things as goal setting, accountability, money management, career planning and more.

On April 10, she discussed interviewing skills with six youngsters who chose to participate in the program.

A new feature could be coming to a City of Wabash park. But the big question is, what park will it be in?

Officials from the Wabash Carnegie Public Library broached with the Wabash Board of Parks and Recreation creating a storybook walk in one of the parks. While board members liked the idea, there is not yet a consensus on which park to locate the walk.

A storybook walk consists of a series of posts with a display in which a page from a storybook is featured. The concept behind the project is to entice families with young children to stroll through the walk and read each page from the storybook. When the walk is finished, the book will have been read.

Families are then encouraged to visit their local library to look for more storybooks.